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Every stock watering trough in the country has a dead simple mechanical float that shuts off the water when the trough gets full. Go to Tractor Supply - I'll bet they're less than $10 per each. And did I mention - they're dead simple.

now that you mention it so does every toilet. Major points to Bob for keeping it simple.

My water tank is under my bed. I also have a halogen puck light above to check the level of the tank by seeing the level through the translucent tank. When I fill my tank, that's the only thing I do since my vent does not vent to the outside (on purpose to keep road dust out). So if the tank overfills it floods the inside-it happened once-and that was enough to convince me to make it a singular job without distractions. After that, I've had no over fills. Mainly because I'm sitting next to the tank and when it gets full the sound changes to a more muted tone so I know the tank is almost full.All the fore mentioned solenoids, switches, float switches, relays, etc are all unnecessary if you just pay attention to what you're doing and make filling the water tank you're only job at that time. After all-how long does it take-10 minutes maybe? I'm a firm believer in KISS. Good Luck, TomC

Yah no. I wish. I am considering a fuel pump handle with autoshutoff. Not sure it will work. Certainly not conventional. But didn't have the desire to work on something complicated in the middle of single digit temperatures. I would love an easy solution for this besides a vent that dumps the overflow onto the ground. We are filling our tank every three days and it's a stinking frigid job and it's making me cranky. Sean, if you figure it out...I'll send you a trophy.

I agree with Ed ( I run off of my tank so I can't accidentally flood the bus - which I have done when hooked to / using shore water). Sea give has a good idea about an overflow alarm, which I will try in the spring (2. A moisture/spill indicator in the overflow tube that powers a circuit with an alarm to let you know that water is flowing through the overflow tubes.).

I believe it was mentioned elsewhere, but a simple, mechanical hose timer from the garden section would work nicely.

Hook it up between the hose and the fill connector. turn the dial to 30 minutes, and go do something else.

easy peasy Japanesy

This is a nifty idea with one exception. This assumes you always empty your tank to the same level of emptiness every time. We fills ours on a non-timely fashion. In other words...sometimes we don't get to it for a few days and the tank is empty (sure, 30 minutes would work) but other times it's only half empty cause we get a chance to fill it early (30 minutes would overflow) so how do we know where to set the timer unless we time the fill up and make markings on the tank....then you have different water pressures at different sites...oh dear.

This is a nifty idea with one exception. This assumes you always empty your tank to the same level of emptiness every time. We fills ours on a non-timely fashion. In other words...sometimes we don't get to it for a few days and the tank is empty (sure, 30 minutes would work) but other times it's only half empty cause we get a chance to fill it early (30 minutes would overflow) so how do we know where to set the timer unless we time the fill up and make markings on the tank....then you have different water pressures at different sites...oh dear.

All valid points

I was just tossing it out as a quick fix, and a way of at least filling the tank (coming close to filling) without worrying about forgetting the hose is on for 8 hours.

Of course, I don't own a bus yet, so ALL of my ideas are just "in theory"

The float valve as used in toilets, troughs, and other things is about as easy and fool proof as you can get. They would need to be built into the tank though. If you have or can get access to the top of the tank, you could cut a hole just big enough to install the valve, and then patch the hole. Since it would be on the top surface, I do not think that it would pose any integrety threat even if it was just glued and screwed closed to allow for future access.

The timer is also a simple way to go. If you use a city water regulator, the pressure should be reasonably under control. You would just then need to know about how many minutes per inch fills your tank. Observe the tank, multiply by the measurement of the void, set the timer a little short to be safe, and take a nap. If there is still room, you can just add more.

In my research on this last year, the toilet valves don't allow enough GPM to flow through. That might be an issue for me because in the winter, my heated bay has to be open for fill and I hate leaving it open longer than needed.

I like Chuck's idea of a sensor in the overflow pipe (you do have an overflow/vent pipe?) that will do its thing when the tank is completely full. If you tie this sensor to a solenoid valve on the fill hose, it's almost KISS-simple. This way you wont need to hack into your tank or deal with slow-filling loo shutoffs.

Also, why not have your fill entry located so you don't need to keep your bay door open, then you won't waste heat from the bay as the tank fills. Obviously this unprotected fill entry will have to be drained when not in use to prevent freezing and cracking, but wouldn't it be drained anyway?

The cheap and easy alternative is a mechanical float. The difficulties that I would have with that is how to get the float in the tank, esp now that they are already installed. Because the float on a mechanical is attached to the spicket, even mounting a small float would be tough in a 1.5" hole if leaving room for a manual hose as well. Maybe a custom float in a site tube coming off the side of a tank?

My main reason for wanting to build this is that I have 4 kids and a lack of attention span. I can totally see myself starting the tank fill and then within 15 minutes having to take care of kid emergencies and forgetting about the tank fill and then the little ones playing in the mud puddle. I also have a tendency to be distracted doing other stuff while waiting for something (such as filling a fresh water tank ) like organizing, cleaning, replying to posts on busconversions.com

I'd also just like to have the tank full before we leave a place without it being another task to do. Flip a switch and pack up the bus. By the time you are done packing (all distractions and children aside) the tank is full as you disconnect and you just wrap up the hose, sewer and electric and drive off.